The Christmas paradox: A nation of 1% Christians

If asked to name the single best word to express the essence of Japanese culture, I would confidently say “adaptation.” We Japanese are exceptionally good at cream-skimming—selecting and adopting the best parts of foreign cultures and integrating them uniquely.

An interesting example is Christianity. Do you know the Christian population percentage in Japan? It is a mere 1%. Even in such a country, Christmas is a colossal event. Almost all Japanese people are on a spending spree weeks before December 25th. The economic effect amounts to roughly 6.5 billion USD annually!

The same phenomenon is happening with Halloween, where the economic effect is hiking up to over 1 billion USD. As you may have seen, young people dress up in elaborate costumes and go delightfully crazy in Tokyo on Halloween night. (We adopted the party, ignored the religion, and created an economic phenomenon. That’s true Japanese adaptation.)

From prohibited meat to marbled Wagyu

Japanese adaptation often involves not just absorbing a culture, but evolving it independently. A perfect example is Wagyu, our famously marbled beef.

Historically, eating meat was officially prohibited in Japan for about 1,200 years, beginning in 675 AD. People only began eating meat widely after the opening of Japan in 1854. Since then, the Japanese palate seems to have evolved quite differently. We came to adore fatty meat. The average fat percentage of beef sold in Japan was about 23% in 1988; by 2009, it had soared to about 69%. It effectively tripled in just 20 years!

This trajectory shows the speed and intensity of Japanese specialization: starting from zero, we rapidly adapted to meat culture, prioritizing flavor and tenderness through high marbling, creating a global luxury product.

Even Shogun sat on the floor

Another good example is the culture of sitting on a chair. Believe it or not, we just started to use chairs only recently, later than starting to eat meat. About 2000 years ago, chairs were already introduced from China, together with Kanji letters, but they didn’t seem to be embedded into the Japanese culture for some reason. Even Shogun (top samurai commanders) sat on the floor.

The short history of sitting

Another profound example of this selective adaptation lies in the culture of sitting. Believe it or not, we only started using Western-style chairs widely very recently, even later than we started eating meat.

Chairs were introduced from China along with Kanji characters about 2,000 years ago, but for some reason, they never truly embedded into Japanese daily culture. Even the Shōgun (the top samurai commanders) sat on the floor, using tatami mats or cushions.

High-skill woodworking and the unique Japanese chair

Although the history of chair manufacturing in Japan is short—only about 150 years—we possess a long and profound history of high-skill woodworking. This expertise is visible in wooden temples, some over 1,000 years old, built with intricate, flexible, and often nail-less joinery.

This centuries-old, high-skill woodworking tradition did not disappear; instead, it evolved. It was applied to the manufacturing of chairs, transforming a foreign concept into something unique and distinctively Japanese. We didn’t invent the chair, but we refined the craft that builds it.

I sincerely hope you will appreciate the Japanese chair—a product of cultural adaptation and ancient craft—with the same high regard you hold for Wagyu beef.

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